Fitter legs linked to a 'fitter' brain - study finds

Researchers at King’s College London have found that muscle fitness as measured by power in the legs is strongly associated with an improved rate of ageing in the brain.

The findings, published in Gerontology, suggest that simple interventions, such as increased levels of walking, targeted to improve leg power in the long term may have an impact on healthy cognitive ageing. The research was funded jointly by the NIHR and the Wellcome Trust.

Scientists studied a sample of 324 healthy female twins from the TwinsUK volunteer registry over a ten-year period from 1999, measuring various health and lifestyle predictors. Researchers were, therefore, able to control for genetic factors affecting changes in cognitive function.

Thinking, learning and memory were measured at both the beginning and end of the study and it was found that leg power was a better predictor of cognitive change than any other lifestyle factors tested. Generally, the twin who had more leg power at the start of the study sustained their cognition better and had fewer brain changes associated with ageing measured after ten years.

The study is thought to be the first that shows a specific link between power (i.e. force and speed) in the lower limbs and cognitive change in a normal, healthy population. As the legs contain the largest muscles they are of particular relevance for muscular fitness and can be exercised easily through various habitual activities such as simply standing or walking.

Dr Claire Steves, lead author and Senior Lecturer in Twin Research at King’s College London and King’s College Hospital said: ‘Everyone wants to know how best to keep their brain fit as they age. Identical twins are a useful comparison, as they share many factors, such as genetics and early life, which we can’t change in adulthood.

View Study: Kicking back Cognitive Ageing: Leg power predicts cognitive ageing after ten years in older females.

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Schools study shows fitness level stalls in teenage girls

The fitness level of Irish girls stalls in their early teenage years, with the average 16-year-old performing no better in tests than a 12-year-old, the results of a countrywide schools-based challenge show.

Boys’ fitness improves over the same age period, with 16-year-olds on average 33 per cent fitter than 12-year-olds, according to the challenge taken by 148 schools.

“The fact that girls are not showing the same improvement in cardiovascular fitness as boys is clearly a cause for concern,” said Prof Niall Moyna of DCU’s school of health and human performance, who set up the challenge four years ago.

Related research into children with low levels of fitness has found evidence of heart disease in the arteries of 15-year-olds, he said. The same children were also found to have high cholesterol, blood pressure and fat levels.

Both boys and girls improved their performance after undertaking a six-week fitness programme that forms part of the challenge, which was taken by more than 10,000 children this year.

The average improvement for boys was 12 per cent while for girls, coming from a lower base, it was 19 per cent.

Prof Moyna says a variety of social and cultural reasons may explain young girls’ poor fitness levels.

“There are issues around the continuing participation of girls in sport as they grow older. They may become unused to pushing themselves, to being out of breath, even to the fact their make-up could run.”

However, he is optimistic about the future because of a “paradigm shift” in recent years which has made it more acceptable for girls to continue in sport, as well as an increase in team sport options.

While Irish boys and girls are well above the European average for fitness for their age group, this is not regarded as an accurate guide to the minimum fitness level required for optimal health, according to Prof Moyna.

The European figures are a “race to the bottom” in terms of performance and Ireland should develop its own national norms, he maintains.

“Lifestyle behaviours tend to track from childhood to adulthood. Children who are unfit and overweight in their teenage years will likely be unfit and overweight as adults.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today present prizes to the most improved schools in the challenge, which is sponsored by Aviva Health.  : The Schools' Fitness Challenge

View more on Irish Times/Health here

Fitness linked to lower cancer risk

Very fit men in their late 40s are less likely to get lung cancer and colorectal cancer than unfit men, a study in JAMA Oncology suggests.  Their high fitness levels also appear to increase their chances of surviving cancer if they are diagnosed later on.

University of Vermont researchers said even small improvements in fitness could help to reduce cancer risk.

View study in JAMA Oncology: Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Incident Cancer, and Survival After Cancer in Men

Cancer Research UK said investigating links between men's fitness levels and cancer risk was a new approach. Being physically active and eating a healthy, balanced diet are already known to be important factors in reducing people's risk of developing cancer and other diseases.

But study author Dr Susan Lakoski said it would be more beneficial to tell people how much they needed to improve their fitness in order to reduce their risk of cancer to acceptable levels.

This could come in the form of a personalised plan, which should start with measuring their cardio-respiratory fitness.

This study of 14,000 men aged between 46 and 50, in Texas, tested their cardio-respiratory fitness levels at the outset by making them run on a treadmill to the point of exhaustion.

After that, their fitness levels were regularly tested over an average of six and a half years between 1971 and 2009.

Between 1999 and 2009, 1,310 of the men had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, 200 with lung cancer and 181 with colorectal cancer.

The study found that the men with high levels of fitness in middle-age reduced their risk of lung cancer by 55% and their risk of colorectal cancer by 44%, compared with the men with low levels of fitness - those who took more than 12 minutes to run or walk a mile.

View more on BBC/Health here

Ireland must do better on kids' exercise

Ireland has been given a mediocre mark in an international grading scale of children's physical activity levels.

The new international scale has graded Ireland with an overall D minus.

The relatively low rating has increased concern over the planned removal of physical education (PE) from junior cycle secondary school education. And under some physical activity headings, no grade was given for Ireland as adequate benchmarking or data does not exist to give an accurate score.

View publication here: Ireland's Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth 2014

According to data for the island of Ireland, only between 12% and 43% of children get enough physical activity.

Ireland sits in the middle of the other countries in the new international physical activity grading and, according to Irish experts, is neither leading nor lagging on how supportive we are as a country to children's physical activity.

Dr Sarahjane Belton, Lecturer in Physical Education at Dublin City University and member of the team that developed the report card, said: "there is concern that the planned removal of PE as a subject from the junior cycle curriculum by the Department of Education and Science in the Republic will affect the PE grade in the future and this is something highlighted as a gap that the Government should address."

View press article here

Endurance Training - Vitamin Supplements

Study cautions against high dosages of vitamin C and E, especially for athletes

Research finds pills could blunt metabolic response of muscles to fitness training



A study published today has raised concerns about the effects of vitamin C and E supplements on people involved in endurance training.

The research, published in the Journal of Physiology, found the vitamin pills could blunt the metabolic response of muscles to fitness training. Dr Gøran Paulsen, who led the study at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, said the study had identified a significant trend but further research was needed.

“Our results show vitamin C and E supplements blunted the endurance training-induced increase of mitochondrial proteins, which are needed to improve muscular endurance.”

In the 11-week trial, 54 young, healthy men and women were randomly allocated to receive either 1000mg vitamin C and 235mg vitamin E – the same amount found in shop supplements – or a placebo. They completed an endurance training programme which mostly involved running. Fitness tests, blood samples and muscle biopsies were taken before and after the intervention.

The supplements did not affect oxygen uptake or the results of a 20m shuttle test but they did show markers for the production of new muscle mitochondria – the power supply for cells – increased only in the group without supplements.

View article in the Journal of Physiology here